Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Lightning Round - 101910

A non-political version, too!
  • Although I do root for the Wisconsin Badgers, it's better for the Big Ten if the local Gophers are a competitive team. Right now they aren't and that's why Tim Brewster had to go. The question around town has been this: why can't the Gophers compete with their two traditional rivals, the Badgers and the Iowa Hawkeyes? I've wondered about that myself. I think the primary issue is location, but it cuts both ways. Having the University in a major metropolitan area should be a huge advantage, since there are ample post-career football opportunities for players. The new stadium is beautiful, too. I think the one major difference for a student is this: the experience is different here. Much more than Wisconsin or Iowa, the "U" is a commuter school and the campus experience is more fragmented as a result. That doesn't matter in the long run, but as you live the experience it plays a role.
  • It wouldn't bother me that much if the Texas Rangers beat the Yankees in the ALCS. Yesterday's performance also drives home the point about what the Twins are missing: a legitimate #1 stud pitcher. Do you think Cliff Lee would have made a difference for the Twins?
  • The Packers are struggling because of the unbelievable string of injuries they've suffered. They'll get no sympathy of course, but to put this in perspective -- how would the Vikings do if they lost Adrian Peterson, Visanthe Shiancoe, Jeff Dugan, E. J. Henderson, Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield? If you give the Packers back Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley, Donald Lee, Clay Matthews, Nick Barnett and Al Harris, do you suspect they'd have fared a little better the last few weeks? I suspect they might.
  • In my 4 years of high school, my beloved Xavier Hawks won a total of 8 games. If the Hawks beat hated Fox Valley Lutheran this week, they will have won 8 games this season. It's amazing what a good coach can do for a program.

7 comments:

Night Writer said...

Joel Maturi won't return my calls, but I'm suggesting Jim Harbaugh as the next Gophers coach. No big-name coach needs the aggravation of trying to rebuild a program at an irrelevant football school. You've got to look at up-and-comers, and Harbaugh has had three successively bigger college head-coaching jobs and his career record is 25 games over .500. He's at Stanford now, taking over the program four years ago following a 1-11 season and had them at 8-5 last year with wins over 3 ranked teams. Currently they're 5-1 this year, including beating USC.

Harbaugh has a Big 10 pedigree (not only did he play at Michigan, his father coached there when he was a kid). Arguably, Stanford is a bigger-name program (and I don't know what he's making there) but if he has a Big 10 jones Minnesota could be the door (though he cold wait for Michigan to fire Rich-Rod). After recruiting kids to play at Stanford he couldn't complain that it is too difficult to get kids into school academically at Minnesota.

Anonymous said...

Actually a win over Fox Valley Lutheran would give Xavier a 9-0 record. Amazing.

Brad Carlson said...

Do you think Cliff Lee would have made a difference for the Twins?

Yep. Twins might have actually won one game!! It was their offense which abandoned them in the postseason this year.

Anonymous said...

Brewster's act has grown tiresome, and his results are not acceptable.

The Gophers need a big time splash name to head their program. They will also need big time cash to lure someone to what has rapidly become a Big Ten Coaching graveyard, second only to perhaps Indiana.

Ok that was the thought process that brought in Tubby Smith. In reality, if I were the Gophers, I'd give serious consideration to Wisconsin Offensive Coordinator Paul Chryst. Many believe that he is truly the brains behinds the Badger Coaching staff. Hiring him would hurt Wisconsin, and help with recruiting at the same time.

CousinDan 54915 said...

Mr. D:

With a son playing in the FVA I don't get to see much Xavier football anymore. They are competitive at their level every year, and the only reason has to be coaching. They aren't as successful in hoops or track or baseball. Not bad, but the football team has been great. Doesn't get much attention in town though as the University of Kimberly plus all the FVA action here does.

Of course in 2011 the WIAA has decided to break up the FVA so maybe they'll get more local coverage while we all drive half way to Minnesota to see our kids play conference games. The PC won't bother so Xavier will have them all to themselves. If you name the press box after Mike Woods its a surety.

Anonymous said...

Xavier remains successful in hoops. They've won 3 league titles in recent years and competed at the WIAA State Tournament in 2009.

Mr. D said...

Dan,

Didn't know they were breaking up the FVA, but it doesn't surprise me. So what, are they going to be playing against SPASH?

And anon is right -- XHS has always been a good basketball school and continues to be. That's a tradition I don't see ending. The change is football is most welcome, though. It used to be pretty depressing watching the Hawks get their butts handed to them every week, especially by Premontre, Pennings and Springs.